The body of a man, presumed to be a stowaway from Africa, has been found in the cargo hold of a ship carrying bags of cocoa beans to the U.S.

The UK-flagged Sian C was being unloaded at Pier 84 on the Delaware River, Philadelphia, when the body was found on Monday. The vessel had docked last Thursday after a 5,000 mile voyage from the Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire).

Authorities were called to recover the decomposing body, and customs officials are trying to identify the man. He was found with a backpack containing some provisions and a pair of boots.

The man may have died as a result of suffocation or been crushed by the bags of cocoa beans, reports local media.

The IMO conducted a regional seminar on stowaways in the Ivory Coast in March which was hosted by the Ministry of Transport of Côte d’Ivoire. Participants agreed that port facilities need to further strengthen their capacities for surveillance and access control in order to reduce the incidence of stowaways.

The 12 most frequent ports of embarkation for stowaways are the major ports of Benin, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.

The International Group of P&I Clubs puts the annual cost of all stowaway cases worldwide at approximately $15.3 million (measured from February 2011 to February 2012).

Zhejiang Zhenghe Shipbuilding has filed for restructuring at a Chinese court because of operational difficulties resulting from financial problems.
On 31 March, the People’s Court of Dinghai District, Zhoushan Municipality, put on file the restructuring application by Zhenghe Shipbuilding, a

Shipowners have had to settle for less than USD400/ldt for Capesizes as such vessels are flooding the recycling market.
Cash buyers do not expect the barrage of Capesizes to stop anytime soon, with no sign of an improvement in freight rates, which, at below USD6,000/day, are grossly inadequate to

Chinese major ports handled 955.9 million tonnes of cargo in April, down 1.5% year on year (y/y), data released by the Ministry of Transport (MOT) showed on 12 May.
According to the MOT, the cargo volume of coastal ports amounted to 654.6 million tonnes, down 2.8% y/y, while river ports stood at

The navies of littoral states Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore are in talks to extend joint patrols to the lower reaches of South China Sea in a bid to curb piracy.
Rear Admiral Lai Chung Han, chief of the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN), highlighted some of the challenges in conducting these

As the third anniversary of the entry into force of the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 (MLC) approaches, Seafarers’ Rights International (SRI) is embarking on a comprehensive study on the effectiveness of the Convention. The study has been commissioned by the International Transport Workers’ Federation. It will be an in-depth and... Read more →